April 5, 2005
Chevron Texaco makes natural gas find in Venezuelan Deltana's block 3

(BNamericas.com) - "US oil company ChevronTexaco has made a commercial natural gas discovery in block 3 of eastern Venezuela's offshore Deltana natural gas project, ChevronTexaco's Latin America president Ali Moshiri told reporters.

'The results are very positive. We are planning to test the well in the next 2-3 weeks,' Reuters quoted Moshiri as saying.

Moshiri stressed the importance of natural gas for the future of Venezuela's energy industry. 'Gas is necessary for refinery expansion, petrochemicals and other activities,' he said.

ChevronTexaco is also exploring block 2 of Deltana in partnership with US company ConocoPhillips. Four exploratory wells have been drilled on that block, which have all been successful, Moshiri said.

Gas from Deltana could eventually be piped to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project to help Venezuela diversify its oil-reliant economy. First LNG could be shipped to the US in 2009-2010, according to Moshiri.

ChevronTexaco would be interested in taking a share in a potential LNG export project, he added.

State oil firm PDVSA has been negotiating for years with Anglo-Dutch company Shell to build the US$2.7bn Mariscal Sucre LNG project, but PDVSA has said it could split Mariscal Sucre into separate upstream and downstream projects to facilitate the entrance of new partners.

In western Venezuela, ChevronTexaco was one of 37 companies invited to bid on six new natural gas licenses being offered by the government as part of the Rafael Urdaneta project. Bids are due July 27 and the plan is to eventually award a total 29 licenses in four stages.

Increasing natural gas usage in electricity generation, oil refining and crude recovery has become the main tenet of President Hugo Chávez's energy policy. Until recently, natural gas frequently associated with crude finds was just released into the atmosphere".